A Recap of Twitch’s Flurry of Updates June 2023
By Lowco Twitch has been busy this month with a whirlwind of new features and controversial changes that has been all the chatter lately. It can be overwhelming to try to keep up, so let’s make your job as a streamer even easier. Here’s a recap of all the new features and updates Twitch has announced in the last few weeks:
Creator Home
Twitch has added a new tab to every creator’s Dashboard called Creator Home.
What it is: A compilation of your stream analytics, Twitch features, news, insights, and recommendations all in one place. You’ll see what Twitch features you may have not used yet, guidance on what to do next for your stream, and insights on what streamers exist within your community or share viewer overlap with you.
Who it’s for: While any streamer can access Creator Home, we think it’ll be most beneficial for newer streamers who may not be aware of the multitude of tools available to them or why they should actually use them.
Expand Your Network
Creator Home offers insights into who in your own community streams and what other creators share the same viewers as you. This is helpful to find new creators to befriend, raid, and support one another. This journey is harder alone, so try to connect with fellow streamers and help one another succeed.
Learn more about Twitch Creator Home.
Twitch Turbo Price Increase
Twitch has increased the price of Twitch Turbo as they have adjusted pricing to match local currency costs.
What it is: Twitch Turbo is similar to YouTube Premium that gives viewers an ad-free experience across the entire site. Users also enjoy a special chat badge, more emotes, and custom username colors. Streamers also get extended broadcast storage to 60 days instead of 14 days.
What’s new: Nothing. Twitch says “there are more updates on the way for Turbo”.
Do streamers get money from Twitch Turbo? Yes. With Twitch Turbo, even though you don’t see ads, streamers will still receive compensation for your view when they run advertisements.
Learn more about Twitch Turbo pricing changes.
Hype Chat
Twitch has rolled out a new interactive monetization tool called Hype Chat. It is very similar to YouTube Super Chat.
What it is: Viewers can spend real money in their local currency to send a message in chat that will pin to the top of chat for a duration of time. As a viewer tips higher amounts, the pin duration, message length, and visual design of the Hype Chat will change.
Who can use it: Hype Chat is only available to Twitch Partners for now, but Twitch says they are working on a plan to roll it out to more streamers.
About that money split: It’s better than a 50-50 sub split but far worse than accepting direct tips from your community. The Hype Chat payout split is 70/30 for the streamer, after a 5% transaction fee. That maths out to a 66.5% take-home for the streamer. If someone spends $5 on a Hype Chat, the streamer gets $3.32.
Read more about Hype Chat.
Content Classification Labels
Twitch is doing away with the Mature Content toggle and replacing it with a more-detailed label system to better describe your streams.
What it is: Streamers will need to classify mature-rated content in the Stream Info module of their Creator Dashboard. These labels are:
- Mature-rated Games
- Sexual Themes
- Drugs, Intoxication, or Excessive Tobacco Use
- Violent and Graphic Depictions
- Significant Profanity or Vulgarity
- Gambling
Do I need to use this? Yes, you won’t get suspended for not labeling your stream correctly but multiple warnings could lead to your stream getting label-locked which will keep the label on your stream for days or weeks.
A little help: The Mature-rated Games label will be automatically applied if you switch your stream category to an ESRB mature-rated game.
We know you probably have a lot of questions about this one, so read the Content Classification Label Twitch blog.
Twitch Alerts
It only took a decade but Twitch finally has their own first party alerts tool. You’ll find a lot of similarities to major alerts tools like Streamlabs and StreamElements which shows that it was thoughtfully made to include most capabilities you’ll need.
What’s different: You can set up alerts for follows, subscriptions, cheering, and raids but there are some new ones. You can have alerts for Twitch’s Charity tool, hype trains, Twitch’s goal tool, and the new Hype Chat feature.
One unique feature is the ability to let your subscribers customize their alert when they resubscribe. Streamers can set up to 4 images and 4 sounds giving viewers the power to craft their alert just how they like, which is super cool.
Another unique feature of Twitch Alerts is Celebrations. These create a visual effect on the actual channel page itself when an alert goes off which can lead to some really intense, well, celebrations.
Learn more about Twitch Alerts.
Twitch Partner Plus Program
The Twitch Partner Plus Program is a new benefit for streamers who have a high number of recurring paid subscriptions to unlock a 70/30 revenue share on subs.
How do I get it: Only available to Twitch Partners, these streamers will automatically unlock a 12-month period of 70/30 revenue share (up to $100k per calendar year) on recurring and gifted subs (not Prime subs) if they maintain 350 recurring subscribers (gifted and Prime don’t count towards this goal) for three straight months.
When does it start: October 1, 2023. Streamers looking to unlock this on day one will need to make sure they have at least 350 recurring (non-gifted/Prime) subs starting in July.
Why not gifted subs? This Program seems more like a gesture of goodwill than actually being impactful to a large number of creators. If you want to see gifted subs counted, vote on Twitch’s UserVoice.
Learn more about the Twitch Partner Plus program.
Monetized Streamer Agreement
Twitch is centralizing the agreement for Twitch Partners and Affiliates alike through a public document called the Monetized Streamer Agreement.
What does this mean for me: For Affiliates, you’ll find the agreement to look very similar to your previous agreement so not much changes here. For Partners, we recommend reading Gaming, IP & Entertainment Lawyer Noah Downs explanation of the Monetized Streamer Agreement. Partners need to agree to the MSA otherwise they will eventually be reverted to Affiliate status (until they agree).
Important Update: Twitch has since removed the language that suggested streamers needed to stream consistently and maintain a certain level of quality for their streams and replaced it with simply saying you need to use Twitch as a livestream service (rather than running VODs constantly). They also got rid of the $25 maintenance fee for inactive accounts.
Check out the Monetized Streamer Agreement.
Whew, that was a lot of stuff. We hope this has been helpful. If it has, be sure to tell a streamer about our site. To keep up with important Twitch news and our analysis, be sure to subscribe to our streamer newsletter.
